Book contents
- Race in American Literature and Culture
- Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture
- Race in American Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Fractured Foundations
- Part II Racial Citizenship
- Part III Contending Forces
- Part IV Reconfigurations
- Chapter 10 Passing
- Chapter 11 Beyond Assimilation
- Chapter 12 Native Reconfigurations
- Chapter 13 Dispossessions and Repositionings
- Chapter 14 “White by Law,” White by Literature
- Part V Envisioning Race
- Part VI Case Studies
- Part VII Reflections and Prospects
- Index
Chapter 11 - Beyond Assimilation
from Part IV - Reconfigurations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2022
- Race in American Literature and Culture
- Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture
- Race in American Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Fractured Foundations
- Part II Racial Citizenship
- Part III Contending Forces
- Part IV Reconfigurations
- Chapter 10 Passing
- Chapter 11 Beyond Assimilation
- Chapter 12 Native Reconfigurations
- Chapter 13 Dispossessions and Repositionings
- Chapter 14 “White by Law,” White by Literature
- Part V Envisioning Race
- Part VI Case Studies
- Part VII Reflections and Prospects
- Index
Summary
In this essay, I show how Chicanx and Latinx writing critiques assimilation sociology for failing to account for histories of racialization that defy the telos of integration and harmonious coexistence. In addition, a range of Latinx writing demonstrates a different blind spot in assimilation sociology: namely, the way it neglects the inextricability of gender and sexuality from cultural identity. Finally, as I show in the concluding section, Latinx writing encourages us to attend to the role of the state in facilitating or impeding the integration of immigrant and racialized groups. In the last thirty years, immigration policy has been a particular, often violent obstacle for the integration of Latinx migrants, resulting in a situation where many migrants paradoxically assimilate without being assimilated. Assimilation sociology was once a discourse centering primarily on cultural citizenship, but in the absence of legal citizenship, contemporary Latinx writing suggests that cultural citizenship is not enough.
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- Race in American Literature and Culture , pp. 179 - 194Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022